A general background of this area is given in the text entitled "Review of U. S. Army Ionizing Radiation System," a report prepared by the Committee on Ionizing Radiation Dosimetry, Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems, National Research Council, and published by National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1986.
A great deal of work has been done in this field, and a large number of patents issued on various approaches to radiation dosimeters. Among these are the following: U.S. Pat. No. 2,789,232, issued to R. J. Block; U.S. Pat. No. 3,648,049, issued to R. Yokota, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,786,254, issued to T. Yamashita, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,789,227, issued to F. Eichner; U.S. Pat. No. 3,809,901, issued to A. Szalanczy, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4.091,284, issued to T. Yamamoto, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,209,909, issued to R. Lee; U.S. Pat. No. 4,240,992, issued to E. Petrie, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,303,857, issued to I. Inoue, et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,413,184, issued to M. Marrone.
One well-known commercial system is the Fricke dosimeter described by J.P. Keene (J. Sci. Instr. 41 493, 1964; Rad. Res 22 14, 1964).
Basically, the prior art dosimeters use a variety of approaches, including aqueous dosimeters where dose is proportional to chemical change as measured by absorption spectrophotometry; photograph film emulsion, darkened by exposure to ionizing radiation; and the thermoluminescent dosimeter wherein detection is based on the ability of activated or doped ceramic materials to store absorbed radiation energy as seperated electrons and "holes" (positive changes) in the structure, which energy can be released on heating as thermoluminescence.